In college football, punishments can come for a slew of reasons and range from fines to suspensions. When Florida redshirt sophomore defensive lineman Brendan Bett was ejected for spitting on USF junior offensive lineman Cole Skinner, head coach Billy Napier looked for remorse, kept the discipline internal and allowed Bett to continue play in UF’s third game of the season.
UF geared up to face No. 3 Louisiana State at Tiger Stadium Sept. 13, and Napier decided not to publicly announce Bett’s consequence for last week’s incident. He merely said the lineman would miss “a little bit of time.”
“We are going to keep that discipline internal,” Napier said to SEC Nation Sept. 13. “But it’s been a good week, and I think he has tried to handle it with some dignity.”
Napier seemed pleased with the remorse Bett showed following the incident and praised the accountability he took in his apologies to the team and the public.
“For him, there was a lot of feeling about representing the university the right way,” Napier said. “Out-of-character moment for him.”
Bett sat for only the first quarter before he recorded three total tackles — including one solo — against LSU.
The redshirt sophomore played a larger role among Florida’s defensive front after standout redshirt senior defensive lineman Caleb Banks missed Florida’s first two games with a lower-leg injury. Banks got his first start against LSU, but Bett still worked into the game after his short-lived punishment. Banks reinjured his foot in the third quarter and exited the contest.
“Reinjured the foot,” Napier said tersely. “We’ll have more information next week.”
Florida’s defense was formidable against LSU and forced the Tigers to punt in each of their first three drives as they totaled just 45 yards in the first quarter. Through 12 LSU possessions, Florida allowed just 13 offensive points and forced seven punts to keep itself in the game.
However, the Gators failed to capitalize off of their impressive defensive performances, and their offense has fallen stagnant across the last two games. The Gators have scored just two touchdowns while Lagway has tossed six interceptions.
“The game slipped out of our hands two weeks in a row,” sophomore linebacker Myles Graham said Sept. 13. “It’s not just on DJ, it’s not just on defense, it’s not just on one person. It’s on all of us, and we’ve got to all-around play better.”
Contact Curan Ahern at cahern@alligator.org. Follow him on X at @CuranAhern.
Curan is a junior sports journalism student in his fourth semester at The Alligator. He is currently the sports desk's football and enterprise beat writer, and previously served as a reporter for men's tennis, sports enterprise and football. He is currently pursuing a public relations minor and is an avid Duval sports fan. (#DTWD)
